


In This Life

by AVegetarianCannibal



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e07 Yakimono, Fishing, Florida, Gen, Happy Will Graham, Happy dogs, Key West, Will Graham has a nice time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 19:59:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7004377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVegetarianCannibal/pseuds/AVegetarianCannibal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will Graham makes a different choice after he's released from the BSHCI.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In This Life

In another life, Will asks Jack Crawford to take him to the place Miriam Lass was found. In another life, he waits in Hannibal’s kitchen with a gun growing warm in his hand and he tells his trigger finger to be patient.

But not in this life.

In _this_ life, he sells his house in Wolf Trap and trades bone-chilling winters for the endless blue skies and white sand beaches of Key West. He rents a mobile home the same color as the sky and pays out the nose to convince the manager his seven dogs won’t be a nuisance.

Well, Buster is a little bit of a nuisance. He likes to start most mornings by jumping into the canal and swimming after any boats setting off, barking himself hoarse the whole time. To appease the neighbors, Will fixes their boat engines for free or next to it. That works out just fine, because most of the neighbors are retirees, and saving a bit of money is worth putting up with a bossy little Jack Russell.

Winston adjusts just as quickly, and enjoys going out on the boat with Will to fish in the bay for sea trout and jacks. He’s probably just relieved his human has given up midnight walks down the middle of the road.

The other dogs stay a bit nervous the first couple of weeks. It’s a real chore keeping Charlie and Gusto from peeing on the outside of the house for lack of the trees they’re used to. They’ll figure things out eventually. Will is confident.

Two or three times a week, he works for a charter boat service, teaching the tourists all the details about local fish they’ll need to embellish their stories when they get home. It’s not all that different from teaching at the Academy, really, in that he’s talking _at_ them and not _with_ them. He keeps socializing to a minimum, but he’s not nearly as much of a hermit as he was back in Wolf Trap. He fixes motors for several charters and solo tourists, as well. He makes enough money to pay his bills, take care of his dogs, and set a little aside.

Sometimes his neighbor Mrs. Prentiss brings him fried chicken. She’ll say she made too much, because she was used to cooking for herself and Mr. Prentiss, and now he’s  gone but her habits have remained. He suspects she mostly wants the company, but he doesn’t mind. The chicken is some of the best he’s ever had, soaked in buttermilk and coated in cracker crumbs before being deep-fried in peanut oil. She also always brings a bowl of spicy-sweet coleslaw, and sometimes half a lime pie. He protests she’s trying to fatten him up, but he laughs when he says it.

A couple of times, she drops hints about setting him up with her unmarried daughter. When he doesn’t reply with interest, she drops hints about setting him up with her son. He makes sure to tell her, without many details, that he’s kind of getting over a bad breakup and loving being on his own.

He knows there’ll be a day when Hannibal Lecter or Jack Crawford or maybe both of them come looking for him, with a case or something worse, but today is not that day.

Today, he is putting a pot of coffee on before wading into the canal after Buster. Today he is going to cook garlicky snapper and lemon rice, and finish off the last slice of pie in the fridge. He’s going to sit on his boat with his dog between his feet, cast his line into the water in a high, glistening arc, and enjoy the warmth of the sun on his face.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @hyperfashionist on Tumblr, who commissioned a drabble to help my dogs' medical bills. The request was for Will to move to Florida instead of confronting Hannibal in "Yakimono," and just enjoy his life and have a nice day. To commission a fic of your own please see this: <http://avegetariancannibal.tumblr.com/post/144861952614/taking-fic-commissions>


End file.
